.NET User Group Meetup 2014 + iHub

From last year, NUG hasbeen having meet ups onevery last Wednesdayof the month at theiHub. The first of this year is on Wednesday, 29th January. Mark that.

The main purpose of this meetup is for members to share experiences and provide a friendly and supportive environment for each other, present relevant topics that are of interest to them and that other members might want to hear about.

The .NET User Group "Champion" is Stephen Ebichondo. This year, now that Microsoft has revealed all the technologies needed to build a career, Stephen wants to look into proper, standards-based software development.

Stephen is very preferential to using as few tools to complete a job as possible, which is one of the reasons he recommends Team Foundation Server.

Shipping high quality software on time, every time

In Stephen's own words:

Microsoft has just introducedTeam Foundation Server 2013thatwilldecrease rework, increase transparency in application development. It will increase the rate at which one can ship high quality software throughout the application lifecycle.

In the coming sessions we shall the following areas:

Source Control- One of the primary functions of Team Foundation Server. It works well and easily integrates with AD Groups. We have security groups set up by roles per project and also for roles across projects.

Bug Tracking Database- Integration with source control is a definite advantage. By using one package, you have a built in relationship between work items and changesets (which you can further enforce by requiring changesets are only created in the context of work items).

Formal Specification Templates- There are a couple of ways to approach this. You could create a specific work item type for each template and prepopulate some of the content, or if you wanted a more traditional approach, you could store document templates within the project's Document tree (which is, effectively, a document library on the Team Project Portal

Code Reviews- Basic functionality like Annotate (or Blame, if you prefer) are built in. Diff Tools are provided, as well - plus you can switch out the diff tools for others if youdonot like what ships with it. (Personally, I useDevArt's CodeCompare.) As for the actual review process, I am a fan of

Strict Coding Conventions- StyleCop is a must. As such, I also believe that ReSharper is a must, as well. Providing conventions is one thing, but being able to visibly put them in front of the user is another.

Build Management- The build tools in Team Foundation Server 2013 are completely overhauled. Now, builds are defined as workflows using Workflow Foundation.

Test Management- Testers can benefit from the streamlined testing tools in Visual Studio 2013. Automation of CodedUI tests, and the Test Lab Management tools are major strides in the evolution of Visual Studio.

Collaboration- Even if you don't plan on using it at first, the Team Project Portals that are created for each Team Project are ripe with opportunity for collaboration. Just for document management and project wikis alone, it is worth its weight in gold.

Reporting- The reports vary with the templates that you use, but most templates have the type of reports that management care about ready to go. Adding new reports is fairly simple, due to the way that the TFS team has presented data in the cube, as well. A little SSRS knowledge will have you creating detailed custom reports in no time, at all.

Planning- Youdonot mention what type of methodology you are using - but the Agile template has some really nice sprint planning tools built in. You literally launch a sprint planning worksheet from Visual Studio, which opens in Excel, and any changes you make are reflected in TFS.

Support- This is one of the most important factors to me. Having all of the above in a single package also means that I only need to go to one vendor for support. It is invaluable to me to be able to have one phone number to call in the rare occasion that something does go wrong, and know that I have the support incidents to cover it already paid for, thanks to my MSDN subscription.

This is the first meeting so Stephen has set the agenda. However, every member is encouraged to come with an area of interest and present. To add to the program, please send ideas and topics around: